Kansas House Passes Education Bill

The Kansas House has passed an education spending bill on a bipartisan 91-31 vote. The measure includes around $100 million in additional education funding. The bill would create an education study committee and would change teacher certification rules.

"This is a very good combination of strong policy that will help our schools use money efficiently or give us ideas. And it's a strong policy in meeting the court's test that they want us to equalize our funding here in the state," says Rep. Marvin Kleeb, a Republican from Overland Park.

The House bill is very different from a bill passed early Friday morning by the Senate. The Senate version shifts money to education from other areas of the budget. It also includes several controversial policy changes, such as making it easier to fire teachers and an attempt to block the use of Common Core education standards in Kansas schools.

The two chambers will now work to hammer out differences between the bills.